


The Back of an Ace

by Sage (the_ruined_earth_sagelord)



Series: Haikyuu!! One Shots [30]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Reunions, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, just all the fluff tags this is purely self indulgent fluff lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 06:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14731916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ruined_earth_sagelord/pseuds/Sage
Summary: He caught Hinata in his arms, catching him under the thighs and hugging him close. Hinata laughed as they spun around, Bokuto twirling happily in place and nuzzling his face into Hinata’s stomach, Hinata wrapping his arms around Bokuto’s head and neck, holding tight, tight, tight.“Hinata!” Bokuto roared, laughing with him. “I missed you so much, Shouyou!”/ / /Bokuto and Hinata meet again after five years, and pick up right where they left off.





	The Back of an Ace

**Author's Note:**

> Have this smol thing lol. I've never written BokuHina before, so I didn't really get deep into their characterizations. I just wanted them to be happy after seeing each other :')

 

 

 

It was his jaw that did it.

Bokuto stared at the fierce-eyed expression on Hinata’s face as he leapt into the air. The gym floor rocked like waves on the sea, the very wind beneath Hinata splitting around everyone in the immediate area as if they were buffeted by a rising storm. When he jumped, people all around the gym stopped to watch. When he jumped, the old coach gripped his seat a little tighter, as if the years were melting away from him, and he too would leap into dizzying flight. When he jumped, the sunlight from the window seemed to bend towards him, following his path through the air like a halo of fire. When Hinata jumped, he clenched his jaw in a determined grin, a deliriously happy smile that radiated across the net at the very opponents he was playing against. Sheer, unbridled joy coursed through him when he played. Absolute bliss.

It was a smile Bokuto remembered well. It was a smile he’d once worn on his face, in another time, in another place. It was the burden of the ace to get his team out of a pinch. But it was the pleasure of the ace to score point after point, spike harder, run faster, to cry “ _I’m here_ ” and to really be there.

Hinata landed, and the world seemed to settle again with a sigh. His eyes were alight with the same determined glint Bokuto remembered staring across at him when Hinata had first used a feint against Fukurodani. His jaw was still set in that fierce, primal grin. His shoulders were bunched with excitement, his feet planted wide. From where Bokuto was standing, he could mostly see…

_His back_ , Bokuto thought. His breath caught in his throat; his eyes widened.  _The back of an ace_.

A shiver ran up Bokuto’s spine, a slight chill of premonition. Hinata was almost intimidating. Powerful, definitely. But his growth was…scary.

The coach called for the end of practice, the players shouted their thanks to him, the underclassmen started packing things away.

And Hinata turned. He saw Bokuto. Suddenly, the firm jaw was replaced by the soft, excitable, round face Bokuto remembered.

“ ** _BOKUTO-SAN!!!_** ”

A squeak of sneakers, an excited yell, then Hinata was leaping through the air again, this time his legs splayed wide, his arms held out and ready to be embraced. Bokuto saw wings spread out behind Hinata, saw the smile on his face like sunlight, saw his favorite spunky spiker return to him again. He stepped forward, all apprehension melting away in the face of purifying light.

He caught Hinata in his arms, catching him under the thighs and hugging him close. Hinata laughed as they spun around, Bokuto twirling happily in place and nuzzling his face into Hinata’s stomach, Hinata wrapping his arms around Bokuto’s head and neck, holding tight, tight, tight.

“Hinata!” Bokuto roared, laughing with him. “I missed you so much, Shouyou!”

It had been five years since they’d last seen each other. They’d gone to separate universities, had struck out on different paths, but both kept volleyball in their lives. Now Hinata was in his last year at uni, and Bokuto’s visit back to Tokyo after going abroad was proving full of surprises. First he’d heard about his old friend, Tetsurou, getting married to that wily Kenma kid. Then he’d bumped into his old flame, Akaashi, and finally reached some peace after carrying that torch for so long.

And now here he was, seeing Hinata again, the bright spot in his trip. The brightest point in his trip so far.

He set Hinata down, but Hinata clung to him, wrapping his arms around Bokuto’s waist and beaming up at him. He called his teammates over to say hello, laughing at their unease. He was still considerably shorter than Bokuto, but Bokuto realized that there was a certain heft to Hinata now.

_He’s…thicker_ , he thought, feeling guilty as he gripped Hinata’s broad shoulders, held on to his arms just a second longer.  _He’s definitely stronger_.

Hinata’s teammates came over and bowed nervously to Bokuto, some of them coming forward to shake his hand. He hopped around them, excited to meet so many new faces, but he stayed near Hinata, and Hinata hovered close to his side, his fingers tangled in the bright green nylon jacket tied around Bokuto’s waist.

After meeting everyone, Bokuto caught Hinata’s eye. He jerked his head towards the door, wiggling his eyebrows. Hinata smiled, giggled. He glanced at his coach, then whispered something to one of his teammates. The younger boy nodded, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Then he ran towards the coach, yelling, “Coach Kuzo! Coach Kuzo! Your mother is at the window again!”

While the coach screamed and whirled around, covering his face and hurrying away from the window, Bokuto took the opportunity to grab Hinata by the hand and pull him to the gymnasium door. Laughing together, they burst out into the sunlight. Warm air kissed their faces. Pink and red buds from blossoming trees across the gravel path rode the breeze, dropping lightly into Hinata’s hair. Bokuto picked out one of the tiny buds, holding it up to Hinata’s mouth between his finger and thumb. Hinata smiled up at him, then closed his eyes and blew gently on his fingers, making a wish. The bud flew from Bokuto’s fingers. It swirled gently to the ground.

Hinata’s hand was still in his, and he drew him away from the gym, down the path, swinging their arms between them.

“How long are you here for, Bokuto-san?” Hinata said, skipping to keep up with Bokuto’s longer strides.

“Just a few weeks,” he said, unable to keep his eyes off the smile that radiated from Hinata’s face. “I’ve got a job outside the city, so I’ll be moving back to the suburbs soon. But I missed Tokyo. And I missed you!” He reached over and ruffled Hinata’s hair, making him squawk indignantly. But he still beamed happily, and Bokuto grinned back.

“Yeah, but you didn’t miss  _just_  me, right?” Hinata let go of Bokuto’s hand and skipped ahead of him, turning to walk backwards so he could face Bokuto.

“Well, no,” Bokuto said. “I missed a lot of people. I missed the city, its bustle and boom! I missed my family. And Kuroo! That lucky bastard, gettin’ married! I missed Tsukki and my old teammates. I missed…Akaashi.” His voice caught a bit, but he pressed on. “I missed a whole bunch of people who are important to me.” He stopped walking. He looked directly into Hinata’s eyes. “But I missed you a lot.”

Hinata stopped walking backwards, a couple paces away from him. He stretched his arms above his head, then rested his palms against the back of his neck, his elbows bent on either side of his head. He studied Bokuto intensely. Bokuto wasn’t sure Hinata knew how to do anything  _not_  intensely.

The sun was lower in the sky now. Afternoon slowly sank into the early twilight of evening. On the left of the path was a large black pine tree, its boughs spread wide and healthy and green. The red and gold light of the spring afternoon came through the pine needles like falling stardust. Standing in front of it, with that same determined clench in his jaw from the gym, Hinata looked like he was wreathed in a halo of light.

“Would you,” Bokuto found himself saying, “want to get something to eat? With me. Right now. At a restaurant. With me. Just the two of us. Food. Us.” He silently congratulated himself for staying smooth and not throwing up.

Hinata looked at him.

There had been a moment during that first summer when Fukurodani and Karasuno had trained together. There had been a day during that training camp when Bokuto and Hinata had met in the showers—Bokuto entering, Hinata leaving, dripping water from his lean body. Hinata had looked at him, his eyes glazed with a far-away expression, as if peering into some distant future.

“What do you see, when you look at me like that?” Bokuto had asked, wrapping his towel around his waist and stepping into the shower.

Hinata had closed his eyes. He had broken the spell, and there was steam and soap and water. “You,” Hinata said. “I see all of you.”

And now Hinata looked at him with that far-away gaze again. Maybe back then, he had seen this moment on the gravel path outside the gym, the silence stretching between them, the sunlight lapping at their bodies like waves on the shore. Maybe now, he saw another five years into the future. Bokuto wondered if he was in that vision. If, in another five years, they would still be in each other’s lives.

“Yes,” Hinata said. He took Bokuto’s hand. Their fingers curled together automatically; their bodies would do all the speaking for them. And Hinata smiled, a beam of sunlight touching the night-dark earth. “Us.”

Bokuto reached up and brushed his forefinger along that firm jaw, that still soft face. “Us,” he breathed.

Above, the clouds opened as curtains on a revolving stage, and daylight slipped into the maw of night, leaving two boys holding each other under the streetlamp’s light.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: sagechan.tumblr.com
> 
> twitter: @sagechantobiho
> 
> Come say hi <3


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